Arthur Edward DYER (1895–1918)

Arthur Edward Dyer was born in Sunningwell in 1895, the son of George Edward Dyer and Edith Laura Bennett. His parents were married in the Wallingford registration district in the fourth quarter of 1891 and had four children:

George William John Dyer (born in Marston in 1892, registered fourth quarter, and baptised at St Nicholas’s Church there on 5 December 1892)

Arthur Edward Dyer (born in Sunningwell in 1895, registered third quarter, and baptised at St Leonard’s Church there on 25 August 1895)

Elizabeth Laura Dyer (born in Bayworth, Sunningwell in 1896, registered fourth quarter, and baptised at St Leonard’s Church there on 29 November 1896).

Dorothea Mary Dyer (born in Sunningwell on 1 September 1898, and baptised at St Leonard’s Church there on 30 September 1898).

Arthur’s parents evidently started their married life in Marston, and moved to Sunningwell by mid-1895 (with the address specified as Bayworth in 1896). His father is usually described as a labourer or gardener, but in 1895 as a coachman.

The 1901 census shows the family living at White Barn Cottages, Boars Hill, Wootton, and Arthur was then five years old.

By 1911 the family had moved to North Hinksey. Arthur (15) was now working as an errand boy; his father was still a domestic gardener; and his older brother George was an invalid.

By the time Arthur enlisted in the army, he was living at Witney.

In the First World War Arthur Edward Dyer enlisted at Oxford and served as a Private in the 19th Battalion of the King’s (Liverpool) Regiment (Service No. 86423). He was killed in action in France at the age of 22 on 30 March 1918.

He has no known grave, but is remembered on the Pozières Memorial (Panel 21 to 23) and on the war memorial outside St Peter’s Church at Wootton.

POSTSCRIPT

Arthur Edward Dyer’s parents

George Dyer was born in Wootton in 1871/2 (registered first quarter of 1872 with forenames reversed), the son of the labourer John Dyer and his wife Amelia, and was baptised at St Peter’s Church on 4 March 1872. He died at the age of 77 in the Abingdon registration district in the third quarter of 1949.

Edith Laura Bennett (Mrs George Dyer) was born in Garsington in 1868/9 (registered first quarter of 1869). She died at Wootton at the age of 63 and was buried at the church there on 11 July 1932.

His siblings

Dorothea Mary Dyer married Sydney A. Douglas in the Abingdon registration district in the second quarter of 1922.